Tread member for footwear and the like



Jan. 8, 1 929. 1,698,017

a J. R. GAMMETER TREAD MEMBER FOR FOOTWEAR AND THE LIK E Filed Aug. 25, 1927 one direction and flexibility in another direc-- plan, and

Patented Jan. 8, 1929.

7 JOHN B. GAMMETER, or AKRON, onto.

wann- "tricks.

TREAD MEMBER FOR FOOTWEAR AND THE LIKE.

Application filed August 25, 1927. Serial No. 215,330.

[has been required in the case of rubber heels having individual washers embedded therein for the respective nails and yet with secure anchorage of the nails or stitches in the tread member. I Further objects are to provide stiffness in tion in an article of this character such'as to permit, in a tread member for a shoe, for example, the desirable longitudinal fiexibillty and transverse stifiness for comfort, long wear and neatness of appearance.

Other objects are to provide a structure having some or all of the above characteristics and of such character that it will not be susceptible to damage from moisture such as sometimes occurs in the case of a rubber heel provided with a wooden core; to provide an improved method for making an article having some or all of these characteristicswhereby the use of an adhesive for securing the reinforcement in the cushion body may permissibly be avoided; and in other respects to provide for economy of manufacture. In the accompanying drawings, 7 Fig. 1 is a plan view, with a part sectioned and broken away, of a rubber heel embodying and made in accordance with my invention in its preferred form. I

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan view of a modification. Referring to the drawings, the cushion heel shown as an embodiment of the invention in Figs. 1 and 2 comprises a cushion body of rubber composition 10 molded upon a reinforcement consisting of a thin strip 11 of metal, preferably spring steel, looped back and forth to form a core having the general shape of the cushion body, but smaller, in adapted to be nailed through for securing the heel to the shoe. The core is preferably embedded in the cushion near the upper or attachment face of the latter and preferably has the upper edge of the metal strip flush with the upper face of the cushion so that it will abut the shoe to which the heel is attached and thus sustain directly the force between the shoe and the heel, which permits a tight nailing of the heel to the shoe and avoids loosening of the heel such as might occur if rubber were pinched between the shoeand the metal strip and were cut or worn into by the latter.

For secure anchorage of the reinforcement in the heel body the metal strip is formed with recesses or channels, here shown as notches 12, 12 in the upper edge of the strip, which in the molding operation become filled with webs of rubber each of which at both of its ends is integrally joined with the main body of the cushion, so that the body is effectively riveted, by the multiplicity of rubber webs, to the metalstrip.

The looped metal strip is preferably formed with small bays such as are shown at 13, 13 in Fig. 1, adapted to serve as spacers for adjacent reaches of the strip and hold them suitably spaced apart during the molding operation and in service for readily permitting a nail to be driven through the heel at any position, the strip being adapted toyield slightly if necessary to admit the nail, and the bays serving to support one reach of the strip from the next to avoid excessive spreading of a nail-embracing pair of the reaches by the nail or its head such as would permit the nail head to be drawn through the reinforcement. g

The bays 13 are preferably positioned so as to serve as braces between adjacent loops of the strlp near the side of the core, as shown in Fig. 1, the turn of each loop serving as a spacer for the two reaches of the same loop at the other side of the core, the bays thus being ranged in two rows adjacent the respective sides of the core, asshown.

Theheel is readily produced by bending the metal strip to the form shown and preferably tempering it to form the reinforcement or core, placing the core in a heel-mold cavity and molding and vulcanizing the cushion body onto it with heat and pressure. I do not wholly limit my claims, however, to the elimination of an adhesive for securing. the two together.

In the modification shown in Fig. 3 the bays 13 of Fig. 1 are omitted, which is permissible in view of the fact that the rubberof the heel may serve adequately to keep the reaches of the strip properly spaced apart,

the strip being so held during the molding operating or the molding operation being so performed as to maintain the strip in proper shape until the heel is vulcanized.

In the embodiment of Fig. 3 the notches 12 are omitted, as the'use of an adhesive or 7 other expedients may be resorted. to for securing the core in the heel.

The cushion body may be molded in imperforate' form as shown in Fig. 2 and the heads of the nails, l-forced through the,

cushion body until they come up against the metal strip, of the cushion body may be molded with nail receiving apertures 15, 15, Fig. 3, extending from its tread face to the reinforcement and serving as guides for positioning the nails as Well as for readily admitting the heads of the nails,

appended claims.

The metal strip here shown is of fiat form and is set in 'a position edgewise or substan tially normal to thetread surface of the heel, sothat it has great strength against lateral flexure of the heel but permits longitudinal flexure thereof.

Further modifications are possible within the scope of my invention as defined in the I claim: I

'1. A wear member comprising a bodyof resiliently deformable material and a reinforcement embedded therein and spaced from the wear surface of the member, the said reinforcement comprising a plurality of joined reachesof fiat strip material set the wear surface of the member.

' 2. A wear member comprising a body of resiliently deformable material and a 'reinforcement embedded therein and spaced from the wear surface of the member, the said reinforcement comprising a plurality of reaches of metal strip material the reaches edgewise to thereof'being so disposed in the same general direction as to give the member stiffness in that direction and flexibility in a direction transverse thereto, and being of such thinness and so spaced apart as to admit the passage of the body but not the head of, a nail driven through the tread member Without selectivepositioning of the nail.

3. A tread member for footwear comprising a cushion body of rubber composition and a reinforcement therein comprising a plurality'of reaches of metal strip material spaced from the tread surface of the cushion body and substantially flush with its attachment ing a cushion body of resiliently deformable material and, embedded therein a metalreinforcement longitudinally flexible and transversely stiff.

7 A tread member for footwear comprising a cushion body of resiliently deformable material and, embedded therein, a metalreinforcement longitudinally flexible and trans versely stiff, the reinforcement being formed for the passage of nails therethrough.

8. A tread member for footwear comprising a cushion body of resilientlydeformable material and, embedded therein, a bent-metal, integral reinforcement flexible in one direction and relatively nonfiexible in a direction transverse thereto.

. In witness whereof I have hereunto set,

my hand this22nd day of August, 1927.

' JOHN R. GAMMETER; 

